“This rune is one of the reasons I could attach myself to you. I call it the [soul parasite] rune. It can let you leave a part of your soul into something or someone and parasitize it. Basically, you can slowly gain control of your target. If you are strong enough, the process of possession can be done instantly. If you will it the target can become your temporary incarnation. If you want to make the target your main body, then you have to leave the current body behind and put your, entire soul, in your incarnation, that way there is no time limit to the possession. Do you understand what I am saying? I can’t make it simpler than this.” Eve said.

I got the gist of it, but something about this rune troubled me. “How strong must the target be for the parasite to become obsolete?”

“Hehe…you are thinking too small. Don’t forget that this is a rune we are talking about and not a common spell. Even a god can be possessed…it’s just that it would take longer for it to happen. Of course, the target can fight back…” there was a hint of mockery in her eyes.

Another question bugged me, “What is the difference between those two states you mentioned, {control} and {possess}?”

“For you to possess the target, you need complete control over it. {control} means that the parasite has rendered the target unable to see you as an enemy and completely worships you like a zealot.” Eve said.

I found it rather interesting. Such a power…in the wrong hands…can do a lot of damage.

As interesting as it was, I also found it creepy. Imagine being made into a slave against your will..oh, how frustrating it would be…but since it happened without your knowledge, would you have the energy to care?

I could see myself surrounded by an army I was one hundred percent sure would never betray me.

“One last thing. Can I decide how far the control goes and is it irreversible? ” I asked.

“Yes, you can decide how far your relationship will go. As for reversing the effects…the target will still have his memories of your previous entanglement. Not understanding the loss of such feelings will devastate them…but that is if you went too far in your possession. “ she said with a lewd look.

I dared not imagine what she was talking about. Those matters were beyond me…in my previous life and in this current one.

What ‘relationship’? What ‘entanglement’? And that lewd look to top it all…

I am four for god’s sake.

“No. Your soul is twenty-three years old in terms of memories…and who knows how many times you have reincarnated?” she said looking at me seriously.

Let’s just leave it at that. I had no energy to start this conversation.

“Okay. Please brand it on my body.” To sum it up in a few words: I couldn’t wait.

…It was just the first rune. Five more to go.

“We still have time for you to discover the next ones first,” Eve said, materializing a chair next to me with the flick of a finger. She, too, was sitting on a chaise longue looking comfortable as if she had forgotten she was in my Soul…in my body. I should be the one with the honor of sitting down first.

So I sat down, ready to hear what kind of powers she was hiding.

“The next one is the [summoning] rune. It allows you to peer into the many dimensions present in the multiverse and sign a contract with the beings living there. Most of the time, all they want is to become stronger and they look for summoners with power and resources. Those beings become stronger by learning our version of magic…by plundering runes…by feeding on some of the beings of our multiverse. In exchange, they become our servants for a period of time and their contract ends when they die. For example, selling a single rune to them can make some of them serve you until your death or for a thousand years…but you should’ve understood now that if there comes a time that they stand to gain nothing from being associated with you, they’ll find a way to terminate the contract themselves.” Eve said.

I could already imagine being backstabbed by the summon, but I still asked, “If the contract ends with their deaths, how do they get to keep whatever they hoarded during their time with the summoner?”

“Because they are not stupid. They just send a clone in our multiverse to sign a contract. And when that clone dies, all its memories and amassed energy go back to the main body…that’s how they get stronger without lifting a finger.”

Aie! I could see some fat pig god sending thousands of clones to sign contracts all over the multiverse and reap benefits like the god of fortune. Life is unfair…really.

“Alright. What’s the third one?”

“The [contract weaving] rune. The only rune that is almost universally known by all magical beings in the multiverse and different dimensions.” Eve said, refusing to elaborate anymore.

“I get it. It allows for one to not get swindled in deals, especially when there is a huge disparity in strength.” I said with a grin.

“You know…for a previous non-magical being, you’re a fast learner.” She said as a cup appeared in her hand. The cup filled itself up with a white milky liquid…then she drank it all in one gulp.

“What is that?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Liquefied mana,” she said. Nonchalantly.

I knew that there was only gaseous mana from the records I had read in the library. Where was this liquefied mana coming from? “A higher grade of mana?” I asked.

“Yes.”

A cup floated towards me and swiftly drank it, curious to know why it had given her such a blissful look.

“This…this is just …milk,” I said with wide eyes.

“Haha…you really are a kid.” She said as she couldn’t control her laughter. “I guess it couldn’t be helped. The texture and look are exactly like milk. That’s why even in soul form, where you have no taste buds, you still associated it with milk from the feeling your soul felt when you were drinking it.”

“What did it taste like for you to look so intoxicated?” I asked. Really curious to know.

“Haha…not something a kid should know…hahaha.”

If had a body at that moment, veins would be popping on my forehead.

“The fourth rune. Please.”

She immediately stopped laughing and then unsuccessfully attempted to answer seriously.

“You’re gonna like this one. It’s the [darkness] rune.”

Finally. An element.

After a short pause, she continued “Listen carefully because I won’t repeat myself. This one is by far the one with the most abilities and while even I haven’t mastered them all, you should just give yourself some time to understand how to use it better.”

She said, “During the night or as long as there is no direct sunlight like under a shadow, you become stronger. As for how strong that human body of yours will become without the sealed purple phoenix bloodline, it is a mystery. Even I do not know. There is an upper limit…a cap. It just depends on how much mana you’re willing to squander to get there. Your body has gaseous mana so far. That Liquid mana you just drank opened your mana sea. My mana sea is liquid and you can’t access it, so i recommend you to come back here every day to drink some milk…hehe...or else the only mana you’ll be able to attract from the surroundings is gaseous….and I know how ambitious you are so gaseous mana won’t keep up with you. So use the liquefied mana that gods use from now on.”

“So like I said, As long as you are under the covers of shadows, you’re basically unkillable. You have enhanced [dark healing], [dark empowerment] and [shadow manipulation]. The last one allows you to turn into a shadow or cover a certain space with the dark element, blocking any light from entering. Know that with gaseous mana the most you could cover would be a mere hundred meters…but with liquefied mana as a powersource, you could cover the whole planet if that is your wish. There are other abilities but we’ll come to that when we see the other two.”

“The last two are Time and Space.”

Oh god!

“I was born with those two for some reason…and I couldn’t use them for my entire life, they just activated themselves when we died and probably brought us here.”

“Right now all ten runes are inscribed on your current body from the day our souls entered your body…but the [time] and [space] ones are unresponsive like in my previous life…but I still suppressed the other eight, to allow you to have an unperturbed childhood. I know how much ‘family’ means to you, which is the reason I waited until now to appear.”

I was shocked. ‘She had read my memories? How? I couldn’t even read hers.’

There was one detail that was alarming though, “Eight? Ten? Just how many runes do you have? You said six earlier and you showed me six...”

Before I could even finish my sentence, four new runes that looked like the [darkness] rune but at the same time not, appeared.

I mean, there were some similarities, but in essence, weren’t the same.

“Could these be the so-called variations you talked about?”

“Yes. Variations are obtained when there is a fusion of multiple runes, the more compatible they are with each other, the more useful the result of their fusion, which is why never before seen runes are so attractive to many if not all magical beings.”

She continued’ “Of these new four runes, the first is the [shadow step]. It allows you to teleport from one shadow to another. It is the fusion between the [darkness] rune and the [space] rune.

”The second is the [dark lands] rune. It allows the opening of a portal between this multiverse and the shadow dimension. It is the fusion of the [darkness] rune, the [Space] rune, and the [time] rune.”

“The third is known as the [dark corrosion] rune. It allows you to corrode the mind and body of someone, turning them into a {dark minion}. The target receives some of the [darkness] rune-related abilities and it varies from one to the other. Some {dark minions} will even awaken abilities you have no knowledge of…so I strongly recommend you to learn from them when the time comes. As you must have guessed, it is a fusion between the [darkness] rune and the [soul parasite] rune.”

“And lastly, the fourth one. The [dark contract] rune. A weird one. I don’t even understand how the fusion happened. I got it from fusing the [darkness] rune with the [contract weaving] rune.”

I cut in, “Does it allow youtube to cheat on a contract? Hence its name I assume…”

“No…and yes. It is more of a pledge against yourself. A contract against yourself.”

“The reason I said yes is that you are basically cheating with yourself and it is also very dangerous.”

“Let’s say you want to unlock more potential from your body. You could do it… and the potential you gain is proportional to the pledge you make against yourself.”

“Let’s say you say that you’ll never drink alcohol again and if you somehow succumb to your desires and end up drinking even a drop of it, even by accident, you’ll die.”

“Who the he** would do such a brainless thing?” I said, not believing what I was hearing.

“But that’s what the [dark contract] wants. And it delivers on its promises…almost as if it was alive…” Eve said with a smile that wasn’t a smile.

Maybe she had suffered because of it in the past.

I didn’t dare to ask.

I then said, “Imagine if you were the most avid alcoholic in the entire world and then you make that pledge…wouldn’t you become the most powerful person in the world after that?”

“Indeed. I just hope you won’t kill us before these fifty years are over. The only reason I’m at ease is that I know you can make good decisions for yourself. You have lived a life full of misery previously and the life of a magical being is more exciting to you because it is just like a life that comes out of a fairytale.”

“So live well.”